These people helped consolidation come together

Jessie-Lynne Kerr

Some of the most important people behind the consolidation effort who have died:

Claude J. Yates, a retired phone company executive, was the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce president in 1965 who called together 22 other business and civic leaders to draft and sign a petition to the Duval legislative delegation calling for an enabling act to allow people to vote on consolidating the local governments.

The Local Government Study Commission was created as a result of that petition. Some say that Yates' greatest contribution came after the commission completed its work and the proposal was placed on the ballot. Yates headed Citizens for Better Government, which successfully sold the idea to the voters.

Later, Yates was president of Area Communications Inc., the company that brought cable television to Jacksonville and in 1984 was merged into Continental Cablevision.

He lived to age 88, long enough to attend a luncheon celebrating the 20th anniversary of consolidation.

J.J. Daniel was the epitome of a "business and civic leader" - scion of a family whose history of community service in Jacksonville dated back to 1842, a lawyer, president of a large mortgage banking firm, appointed to the state Board of Regents (where he played a major role in the founding of the University of North Florida), founder of Jacksonville's Episcopal High School, the first president of the Jacksonville Community Council Inc., and from 1976 through December 1982 publisher of The Florida Times-Union.

Daniel shared the title of "father of consolidation" with Yates. He chaired the Local Government Study Commission, which conducted an in-depth analysis over 15 months of every facet of every government in the county. Daniel's commitment to fairness and inclusion assured that every facet of the population was represented on the commission.

Daniel died in 1990 at age 73.

Earl M. Johnson, a lawyer, served as secretary of the Local Government Study Commission. The first black member of the Jacksonville Bar Association, Johnson was the attorney in various causes in the early 1960s aimed at tearing down barriers of segregation, speaking with reason and moderation, rather than militancy. He was the local lawyer, along with Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley, who filed the landmark desegregation lawsuit in 1960 against the Duval County School Board on behalf of the NAACP.

Not only did Johnson give minorities a voice in shaping the new government, but he became the first black elected to a countywide office as an at-large member of the first consolidated City Council. He served on the council for 15 years, where he was described as "quietly effective" and was the first black elected City Council president by his colleagues.

Johnson died in 1988 at age 60.

Sallye B. Mathis, a retired Jacksonville schoolteacher and high school dean, had worked quietly in the 1940s to secure equal pay for black educators. In 1967, she became one of two black women elected to the old City Council, representing an inner-city ward of mostly poor people. In that election, she attacked the black voting ticket concept, a political practice where candidates paid to get on a printed ticket circulated in the black community. She urged blacks to make their own choices.

Mathis was a proponent of consolidated government as a method to avoid waste and duplication. She was elected to the new Consolidated City Council and served until her death in 1982 at age 70. During her tenure, she worked fervently for the poor, the elderly and minorities and was a champion of eliminating urban blight with restoration and redevelopment.

W.E. "Ted" Grissett, a lawyer, served as vice chairman of the Local Government Study Commission, and then won a district seat representing the Cedar Hills area on the new consolidated City Council. There, his colleagues elected him the first City Council president.

In that post, Grissett helped write the rules under which the council operates, as well as the new city zoning code. Grissett was known for his intelligence, understanding of government and his organizational skills in getting the first council organized.

Grissett died in 1996 at age 70.

Lex Hester was hired as executive director of the Local Government Study Commission in November 1965 at a salary of $1,000 a month. Armed with a master's degree in public administration, he proved to be a master of detail with enormous professional knowledge who read books about governmental trends and urban problems with the same enthusiasm that others read best-selling novels.

He wasted no time in leading the volunteer members of the commission into an in-depth fact-finding study of every facet of the local governments in order to develop a final plan for consolidation by the 15-month deadline.

Hester later worked in the administrations of mayors Hans Tanzler, Ed Austin and John Delaney and as an administrator in Orlando and Broward County. He died of a sudden heart attack in 2000 at age 64.

Mary L. Singleton, a former high school teacher and owner of several barbecue restaurants, was, along with Mathis, elected to the old City Council in 1967, the first blacks to do so in 60 years. She was elected later that year without opposition to the new consolidated City Council.

In 1972, Singleton became the first black and the first woman to be elected to the Florida Legislature from North Florida since Reconstruction. She resigned in 1975 when she was appointed state director of elections. After a failed bid to be elected lieutenant governor in 1978, Singleton was appointed director of the state Banking and Finance Department's Division of Administration, a post she held until her death in 1980 at age 54.

Gert H.W. Schmidt, who had varied careers in Jacksonville as a hotelier, tractor dealer and television broadcast executive, served on the executive committee of the Local Government Study Commission.

The German-born immigrant served on the board that oversaw Florida's public universities, was chairman of the committee that selected the site for the University of North Florida, chairman of the state vocational education advisory committee and was board chairman of the Jacksonville branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

His final career came in 1970, when Schmidt became president and general manager of WTLV TV-12. Within five years, he was chairman of the board of the National Association of Broadcasters. After the station was sold, Schmidt was a vice president of Harte-Hanks Communications until he retired. He died in 2003 at the age of 88.